Kid’s now getting into MMA.

This weekend will be capping off, what is probably the biggest 8 day stretch in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) history. Last week UFC 84 took place with three big fights and many other good undercard fights. Tonight Elite XC will have their first fight night on CBS, which will mark the first time MMA has been broadcast on network television. Then, to cap it all off tomorrow night W.E.C. (another MMA league) will have the biggest fight in their history on basic cable (at least I think VS is still considered basic cable).

All in all MMA is becoming more and more mainstream with the media, the sponsors, and even more so the participants. There will be girls fighiting on the Elite XC show tonight and this morning I just saw this piece from 20/20 with John Stossel looking into kids who are now getting into MMA.

I may be jaded as I don’t have kids, but I think this is actually great. Getting kids into the sport at an early age will help teach good technique, and really, how much can these kids hurt eachother. MMA has proven to be safer than many other sports and I think teaching kids how to take a hit at an early age will be a great thing in our current society. It’s refreshing to see some parents not get so scared for their sons and daughters to even play tag or kickball on the schoolyard.

Watch the piece above if you have a spare 6 minutes and let me know what you think. Is it to early to get kids into a contact sport?

Also, if you want a good little introduction on MMA check out this blog post. It doesn’t give you everything, but at least a good base to go off of. AOL Sports Blog

Hat tip: AOL Sports blog [Stossel looks at kids in MMA]

Do Work

If you’re a fan of OSU Football, you have probably heard that the defensive moto for next year is “Do Work” taken from MTV’s Rob & Big.  I love the show, so seeing two things I really enjoy come together made me think that I had to do something about it.  I made a shirt.

If you don’t know where I got the inspiration for this shirt at, check out Big Black’s clothing line.  I took into account, Al Afalava’s initials AA, his number #9, and the fact that he will be one of the key contributors to OSU’s stelar secondary next year.  All of these, mixed with the nod to the “Double B’s” makes it a must own for those Rob & Big or Afalava fans in Corvallis (or anywhere).

Here’s my store where you can buy the Afalava Do Work shirt.  Let me know if you get one, and if so, take a picture and send it in.

Afalava Do Work Shirt

ESPN: Outside the Lines looks into u of o athletics

Because I think this is a very controversial issue that more people should look into. Glad to see ESPN doing a little “reporting” even though it’s tough for them to dig to deep in just under six minutes. There are way to many controversies with hiring the second biggest donor, who does not have a college education, and who basically bought the job. Although I’m sure it helps with donations, and it may be a good way to build up the infrastructure of the athletic facitilies (baseball stadium and basketball arena) it does not send a good message to the student athletes who need to remember that there is more to life than sports. The good ‘ol boys club in Eugene has got to be loving this amosphere, but it is not the right way to run an athletic department.

Then this coming Thursday is the beginning of March Madness.  The best sporting event of the year that typically does not have Oregon State in it.  With the tournament comes office pools and many many brackets being filled out, distributed, and talked about with almost every person you know.  I have what I think is my final bracket, but with UCLA having two potential game changing injuries, I may have to change it again tomorrow.

As there is a rumor that Starbucks may be unveiling a customer loyalty program tomorrow it got me thinking as to what this program can, will, and should look like.  A free drink every ten drinks?  Doesn’t seem like it’s worth it.  A bonus for auto-filling your Starbucks Card?  Potentially.  More personalized emails, offers, recommendations, etc.  Hopefully.  However, with my regular Starbucks having the occasional trivia games with free drinks (or high-fives), it hit me. 

Starbucks should unveil a nation wide NCAA bracket challenge.  Everyone is getting into it, even John McCain has his bracket, that you can sign up for and win McCain shwag (Sounds exciting).  

Think about it.  Starbucks makes a brackets that you can fill out online, or fill out in person at your local Starbucks.  They then tie each bracket to a registered Starbucks Card holder.  Starbucks is then able to put updates on their chalk boards each morning as to who the leaders at that particular Starbucks are and where they rank in the state or nation (if they are close to the top).  This creates a HUGE connection in the store, between the baristas and customers and even among the customers.  Starbucks offers, a weeks worth (1 a day) of whatever the customers most frequently ordered drink is (as it’s tied to their Starbucks Card) if they win the individual store bracket, maybe a month if they win the state, and a year if they win the whole thing.  A year worth of coffee at say $4 is still only apx $1500.  Not much to create the type of buzz and community that this would bring with it.This would bring people back to either the store or the website, create a bond between a large group of people, and in my opinion would drive up loyalty which in turn drives up sales.  They can then parlay this into other trivia games, fantasy sports leagues, random drawings, etc.

Now THAT is a good customer loyalty program for Starbucks if you ask me.  What do you think?  Am I to wrapped up in these two events?  Is it to crazy of an idea?

For starters he is the 43rd richest man in the world, only two spots and $1B behind Paul Allen. He became the CEO of the company that Allen founded and has been with it through it’s ups and downs and has made it into what it is today. Pretty incredible ride if you ask me.

What makes me think he is the new Paul Allen though is that he is making a last second move to help keep a professional sports team in Seattle. Something that Paul Allen is famous for doing with the Seahawks. Who now, with their success have turned Paul Allen into a local hero. Along with a few other big money names here in the Seattle area, Ballmer has put together a team that has, not only offered to buy the Sonics from an outside ownership team that is trying to move the team to Oklahoma City, but also offered to pay $150M of the $300M Key Arena renovation. This is a huge move! The Key Arena is desperately in need of a major renovation in order to keep up with the other sports teams in the city as well as the NBA as a whole. I know people aren’t fans of public money going to private owners, but in the case of Key Arena, this actually makes sense. Key Arena is owned by the city as part of the Seattle Center which hosts festivals, concerts, and many other events throughout the other 300 days that don’t have basketball games. So in this case, it actually doesn’t make “sense” for the private investors, Allen and Co., to be giving money to the Seattle Center. These renovations will bring more top tier concerts that have recently began to skip Seattle for the easier in and out access of the Tacoma Dome because the facilities didn’t match up with the extra 30 minutes of driving and much more complicated logistics of getting trucks in and and out of the city of Seattle. These renovations should pay for themselves, and at the least, not turn the Seattle Center into a ghost town which it would be without a renovated Key Arena.

So, although I wish that Howard Schultz and his group of the investors had not sold the Sonics, especially to a group that everybody knew wanted to move the team to another city, it could provide Seattle with a new billionaire hero. Think about it. Ballmer saving the Sonics shortly before they leave would turn him into the modern day Paul Allen if the Sonics turn into the team they could in the near future with their salary cap room and draft picks coming down the line (6 first round picks in the next 3 years). They would also be two of the main Seattle Centers if this deal does get done (Allen with the Experience Music Project and of course Ballmer with the Key Arena). So if this deal does go through, is this the beginning of Ballmer making his mark on the Seattle area outside of Microsoft?

Since my blog has moved in the direction of debating what is and is not a sport, I give you this image.   If bowling requires defense, how is it not a sport?

Hat tip: Deadspin

It’s a fairly long article, but I guess any item written on this subject will be. He basically created a checklist, as Aaron Vis did in an earlier comment, about what should be included in a sport. His checklist includes; objective scoring, mostly human power, direct head-to-head, requires physical strength, and employs a ball. He doesn’t say that all sports need to meet all five criteria, but that it’s a good point to start the debate.

The only six sports to match all five criteria are baseball, basketball, football, hockey, soccer, and tennis. What do you think, are those the six most sport like competitions because they meet the most items on this list? Where is the cutoff? Would meeting three of these criteria be enough to constitute a sport? Four? One?

After the jump the checklist, but I’d recommend reading the entire article and weighing with your opinion some more.

Seattle PI Article

*probably not true

Well this weekend I read about my new favorite exchange that I really hope takes off.  Yoonew, is an exchange for sports tickets, that is focusing for now on Super Bowl 42 tickets.  This is a great way for fans to potentially get tickets to watch their teams in big games, at a fraction of the costs.  For example, I can buy tickets to watch the Seahawks (if they make it) in this years Super bowl, for about half the price of face value and exponentially cheaper than the after market value.  However, if the Hawks were not to make it to the Super Bowl, I would be out a few hundred dollars.  You can also buy futures for tickets and still make money if the prices of tickets were to go down.

I think this is a phenomenal business idea and with fans always feeling more optimistic about their team, than the odds actually are, this will lead to alot of trading if the business can get to a critical mass.  It can also lead to an affordable way for people to experience dream events.  I hope the word spreads and this exchange takes off, because everyone wins, as opposed to only a select few ticket brokers winning at this time.

Tech Crunch Story

Horizon Airlines, which is based out of Seattle, has decided to paint four of their planes to match the four major universities in Washington and Oregon.  I’m most excited about the Beaver plane, and very uncertain how I would feel if they asked me to get on a duck plane.  I know that there are people that give much more money than I do to their respective schools and I wonder how they would react to being asked to board their rival schools plane.

Now if I could request to fly from PDX to SFO on the Oregon State plane to watch the Emerald Bowl I would love it.

So is this a worth while marketing move by Horizon or will the painting and eventual repainting (and a few upset customers) be more than the stunt was worth?  It shows that they’re a Northwest brand and says that they support the Northwest, but to me it seems to be a little to much effort for how uch positive PR it will produce. Of course, I don’t know how much painting a plane like this costs and maybe it’s not that big of an effort.

[Article with all the planes and the press release]

Jones has never been one to pass on a weird tasting soda to get some pr.  A few years ago I bought their holiday pack which included Turkey, Smoked Salmon, Green Bean Casserole, and Pecan Pie.  Nobody wanted them with their Thanksgiving dinner, so a few weeks later I tried one of them.  It’s safe to say I didn’t drink the rest of the holiday pack.

Well to one up the holiday pack and to tie in their sponsorship of the Seahawks Jones Soday today announced their new "Seahawks Collector Pack" which includes these fine sodas

Dirt Soda, Sports Cream Soda, Perspiration Soda, Natural Field Turf Soda, and Sweet Victory Soda.

Mmmm, sounds delicious.  When two things you love combine to make something so horrible it just doesn’t seem right.

[Press Release]